Pages

Friday, July 25, 2014

World Building- guest post

I have new re-release of
a book that is the start of a trilogy. I call it a steampunk spacewestern, and
the world building got pretty elaborate. I thought I would share a little of my
process.

In the initial stages of
world building I make big picture decisions. I decide what I’m
writing—paranormal romance? Science fiction? I write speculative romance
fiction, but even in a contemporary setting you develop a world. Robin Carr’s Virgin River series has a very detailed
setting and is a world full of wounded vets and hard working medical personnel.

I decided I was mixing up subgenres with this
story--a space frontier with a western pioneer feel, with space ships and tiny
colonies on far flung planets. I decided both supernatural and paranormal
elements would exist in that world. Overarching it all I have the background of
a Terran Diaspora, of lawless places, of a recent war over slavery, of places
where women are exploited and ‘might makes right’.

From the big picture I
then have different settings. One setting is a mining camp under a bubble on an
asteroid, another, a utilitarian space ship, old but well maintained. Later
they journey to a green planet, with evergreen trees and snow. A log lodge is reached
by small dirigibles ships.

I'm a visual writer, I
see pictures in my mind. So as I start a new project I look for graphics to put
in my file, pictures that invoke something of what I see internally, or
pictures that inspire. I usually look at celebrity pictures because it is easy
to find several facial expressions of the same person. For geographic graphics,
I search wallpaper sites and graphic artist sites for fantasy and scifi
pictures.

I use a writing software program called
Scrivener, which has a virtual corkboard for graphics and notes. I write on a
split screen, with the corkboard always at hand. Since these pictures are only
seen by me, I am free to download anything that inspires me.

For Starlander’s Myth I have actresses from old Western movies, Firefly and Serenity pictures, gas clouds in space, a Victorian little girl
with ringlets, and Anne Gedde’s photo of a baby with butterfly wings.

Then I make lists to keep
on my Scrivener corkboard: place names, people names, thing names. I might make
a little map to remind me where places are in my fictional world. I put those
in Scrivener under RESEARCH. I find lists are really helpful when everything is
made up. Is that mineral called crist or cryst? Did they live on Charity Wells
or Charity Falls? It is much less frustrating to have the answer a click away
rather than searching through half your work in progress. Especially helpful if
you make up alien language words that are easy to misspell. In that Krzsch or Krzsh?

Make sure you add those
new words to your dictionary!

Some other things I did
for world building—read some westerns for dialog. The TV show Firefly was great
for that. Lonesome Dove, too. I
wanted an older feel to the dialog. I also listened to music, fiddles, Stephen
Foster—Here’s one of my all time favorite songs:

http://youtu.be/09KCf_-wby4 that I listened to while writing. (Iron and
Wine has a fabulous version of this) Hard
Times Come Again No More, Stephen Foster, 1854.

~ Melisse Aires

Coming this weekend to
Amazon: Starlander’s Myth

Click image to buy

Blurb

Asteroid miner Jack
Starlander stumbles upon the illegal sale of a woman and child with unusual
abilities. Jack once fought to free slaves and can't abide slavers. In the
ensuing shoot out, two important men die. Jack, Sophie and her daughter and
Jack's close neighbors are forced to flee to safety. Their journey takes them
into deadly danger.

An
Antiquarian with her own ancient secret, Sophie knows old stories may seem
fantastical but have core of truth. She recognizes the mythic thread in the old
Starlander legend. Perhaps his family's myth can save them.

Alex--yes, I was inspired by Firefly! Also re-watched the show for the dialog. Also loved the Elizabeth Peter's Victorian mysteries set in Egypt, so that made a neo-Victorian setting seem 'real' to me. Lol, write what you know, they say!